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Loco motion

28 September, 2007

On Monday night Astragal pitched up at the House of Commons to hear two teams, one led by Guardian journo Simon Jenkins and the other by Jack Pringle, debate the motion, ‘This House believes that architects have failed to learn anything from their mistakes in the 60s’. (In case you’re wondering, Jack was against and Simon was for). Presided over by that dominatrix of the House, Bettie Boothroyd, a string of eloquent debaters, including the rabble-rousing former AJ ed Isabel Allen, took their turn to debate the frankly ridiculous motion. Nonetheless, it was all good-natured stuff and the general consensus seemed to be that yes, there really was some awful stuff built in the 60s but on the whole architects are very nice people. Surprise surprise. Highlight of the night? A young man, old at heart, who stood up and pointed at the Architecture Week logo and said, ‘Turn that logo upside down and read it. That’s what architects are really all about!’

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The Architects' Journal is the voice of architecture in Britain. We sit at the heart of the debate about British architecture and British cities, and form opinions across the whole construction industry on design-related matters